Energy Bill
10:54 am
Philip Pearson: This is almost the $64,000 question: what are the advantages to UK industry of the energy strategy? I did notice that the Secretary of State referred to the green industrial opportunities in his speech on Second Reading, to which the TUC would say, “Absolutely.” But the question obviously is what procurement mechanisms could secure a stronger green future for UK manufacturing? I think that the Committee would need to address that; I do not think that there are any simple answers. The Government had a sustainable procurement task force looking into this very question and it has been urging Government Departments to undertake a kind of UK-favoured procurement strategy, consistent with the EU rules. The TUC has argued elsewhere that we think that this is possible and should certainly find expression through the energy strategy.
It is a huge challenge, and we think that, in the next 10 to 15 years, some of the key issues are the growth of renewables; carbon capture and storage, which is crucially important; and getting the mix right between coal and gas. We think that the mix is wrong at the moment: there is far too much emphasis on the emergence of gas-fired power. We have coal resources and, subject to clean coal technology, that is a direction that we should be going in. All of these options should bring major industrial opportunities, but it needs a lot more thought to secure those advantages.